Serial Publication

Especially during the nineteenth century, many novels appeared
first in periodicals, a few chapters at a time. Readers could
often collect all the separate parts and have them bound later,
or could wait for the publication of the complete work in book
form.

Since authors could publish early chapters before later chapters
were written, serial publication could sometimes lead to
meandering, picaresqueplots. Dickens, perhaps the author most
famous for serial publication, would sometimes let audience
reaction determine how he completed his novels: The Pickwick
Papers, for instance, introduced a character called Sam
Weller in the early chapters, who became so popular that Dickens
made him a central character later in the book.